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Growth management and Smart Growth initiatives in the United States represent an ongoing process of growth accommodation. Because growth by definition constitutes unsustainable behavior in that it is incapable of being continued or maintained indefinitely, ongoing growth accommodation must be recognized as activity incongruous with advancing the goal of ecological...

We evaluated whether growth rates of six fish species correlated with PCB concentrations in a moderately-to-heavily polluted freshwater ecosystem. Using a large dataset (n Â¼ 984 individuals), and after accounting for growth effects related to fish age, habitat, sex, and lipids, growth correlated significantly, but positively with lipid-corrected PCB concentrations for...

Climate change in the 21st century will affect tree growth in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, although complex climateâgrowth relationships make it difficult to identify how radial growth will respond across different species distributions. We used a novel method to examine potential growth responses to climate change at a broad geographical scale with a...

1. Current efforts to model population dynamics of high-value tropical timber species largely assume that individual growth history is unimportant to population dynamics, yet growth autocorrelation is known to adversely affect model predictions. In this study, we analyse a decade of annual census data from a natural population of big-leaf mahogany Swietenia macrophylla...

We used data from 142 stands in Colorado and Wyoming, USA, to test the expectations of a model of growth dominance and stand development. Growth dominance relates the distribution of growth rates of individual trees within a stand to tree sizes. Stands with large trees that account for a greater share of stand growth than of stand mass exhibit strong growth dominance....

Cross-sectional area growth and height growth of Fraser fir and red spruce trees growing in Virginia and North Carolina were analyzed to identify possible long-term growth trends. Cross-sectional area growth provided no evidence of growth decline. The individual discs were classified according to parameter estimates of the growth trend equation. The predominant pattern...

Growth dominance provides a quantitative description of the relative contribution of individual trees to stand growth. Positive dominance occurs when the largest individuals account for a greater proportion of growth period increment than total biomass. Conversely, negative dominance occurs when the smallest trees account for a greater proportion of the growth period...

Canopy gaps created by tree mortality can affect the speed and trajectory of vegetation growth. Speciesâ population dynamics, and spatial heterogeneity in mature forests. Most studies focus on plant development within gaps, yet gaps also affect the mortality and growth of surrounding trees, which influence shading and root encroachment into gaps and determine whether,...

The timing of periodic life cycle events in plants (phenology) is an important factor determining how species and populations will react to climate change. We evaluated annual patterns of basal-area and height growth of coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotusuga menziesii var. menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) seedlings from four seed sources...

Because Townsend's chipmunks (Tomias townsendii) may be important in maintaining natural ecosystem processes in forests in the central Oregon Cascade Range, we compared their population characteristics in young second-growth and old-growth forests. We live-trapped Townsend's chipmunks in 5 young (30-60 yr old) second-growth and 5 old-...

Most shoot elongation on Pinus taeda L. seedlings and saplings near Durham. North Carolina. was supplied by the lirst growth Ilush, which began about April 1 and ended in mid-May 1967. New growth per shoot declined with distance from the tree top. All leaders had three flushes and half had four. Variation in internode growth was dependent upon...

Ecologists and foresters have long noted a link between tree growth rate and mortality, and recent work suggests that i&erspecific differences in low growth tolerauce is a key force shaping forest structure. Little information is available, however, on the growth-mortality relationship for most species. We present three methods for estimating growth-mortality...

During the past decade, Swiss needle cast (SNC) damage has intensified in many Douglas-fir plantations in the Coast Range of Oregon, particularly along the immediate north coast. In plantations with severe symptoms, growth losses and reduced tree vigor are evident, but the magnitude of growth losses associated with varying intensities of damage is not known. A growth...

The purpose of this work is to understand the nature of growth-climate relationships for Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) across the climatic dimensions of its niche. We used a combination of biophysically informed sampling (to identify sample sites) and dendroclimatology (to identify growth-climate relationships) along a climate gradient in...

Growth management policies in the U.S. have failed to gain significant political support in many regions, limiting efforts to manage development patterns and protect natural resources. The Smart Growth movement has brought new voices into the debate over growth management and has provided a "big tent" under which transportation groups, environmentalists,...

A simple procedure for evaluating the diameter growth of young stands in relation to potential growth is described. A comparison technique is developed which contrasts relative diameter of crop trees to the relative diameter growth of the last decade to show the condition and trend of growth in the stand. The method is objective, easy to use, and has several...

We address the relationships between tree growth rate and growing environment for 21 co-occurring species. Tree growth rates are obtained from mapped plots at the Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research site in the southern Appalachian Mountains. We employ high-resolution aerial photography to assess the light environment for trees growing in these plots, using exposed...

Fertilizing and mulching of eroded Hartsells soil increased height and diameter of yellow-poplars. To see if chemical infertility of exposed Hartsells subsoils limits yellow-poplar growth and to test fertilizer and mulch as remedial agents, seedlings were planted on undisturbed soil, soil with the topsoil removed, and soil with the topsoil removed but mulched with leaf...

Height growth of 10 loblolly pines (Pinus taeda L.) during one growing season ranged from 35.7 to 126.9 cm. Ninety-four percent of these tree-to-tree differences in height growth were accounted for by two thermal characteristics of each tree: (1) threshold temperature for growth and (2) growth rate per unit of heat above 40Â°F (4.4Â°C). These...